Great value for your money, but you need a little patience, to steal a line from a band that isn't out of place here.
For a bargain price, you get some brilliantly animated and textured pool, complete with multiple venues, a WIDE variety of games to choose from (including snooker, a personal favorite from my pool-hall days), many many people to challenge, and a mediocre story. If you enjoy a good game of pool, this one won't disappoint. Yes, the pacing is slow, but this isn't a first-person shooter. The pace is, frankly, quite close to a real pool game's pace. Yes, there are loads before every shot, which is mildly annoying, but if you don't mind that, you will be rewarded with a long long 'campaign', where you challenge competitors in each venue in order to build up your 'reputation' in the place. As you beat each poolhall 'boss', you open up the next hall, with a new set of characters to challenge. The difficulty level is a little lower than some other video pool games I've played (they include arrows showing where the cue ball and the ball it hits will go), but the competition can still be stiff, especially in later stages.
Compared to some other PSP offerings, in which you complete the game in under 10 hours, this one has staying power, since there are so many game types (8 ball, 9 ball, snooker, etc), competitors, and venues.
If you like pool, and aren't concerned about waiting a few seconds to watch each shot, you will be rewarded with a very decent little game of pool.
My only complaint, aside from the loads, is that the music and background sounds are extremely annoying at times, but you can shut that off. A few of the background crowd sounds get annoying (with repetitive cat calls occurring too frequently), but the gameplay more than makes up for it, in my opinion.